Was Antarctica Ever Warm?

Antarctica, English: Antarctica; French: Antarctique, known as the seventh continent, is the last continent to be found on earth, and the only continent to settle.

[nán jí]

In Chinese characters, the South Pole is the southernmost point of the earth. In fact, there is Antarctica,

There are more than 220 kinds of minerals in Antarctica. Mainly coal, oil, natural gas,

Since the 18th century,

The Antarctic region is extremely rich in mineral resources. According to the identified resource distribution, the reserves of coal, iron and oil are the first in the world, and other mineral resources are still under investigation. In the Antarctic region, it is expected to find more and more abundant mineral resources, and to provide scientific basis for human use of these resources.

The Permian coal seam of the Antarctic continent is mainly distributed under the ice sheet of Antarctica, with reserves of about 500 billion tons.

Iron ore is one of the richest mineral resources in Antarctica. In Antarctica, it is mainly distributed in East Antarctica. According to scientists' investigations, in the strata in the south of the Prince Charles Mountains, from late Archean to Proterozoic, there is a strip-shaped magnetite-rich rock layer with a thickness of 400 meters, a length of 120-180 kilometers, and a width of 5-10 kilometers. The average grade of ore is 32% -58%. It is an iron-rich ore deposit with industrial mining value. It is estimated that its reserves can be developed and utilized for 200 years around the world. It is the largest iron-rich ore deposit in the world today. Interestingly, if the longitude range (60 degrees north latitude to 70 degrees north latitude) along the Prince Charles Mountains in Antarctica is always going northward, it is almost an arctic region with almost the same longitude and is a world-class large iron ore region. .

Antarctica has oil reserves of about 50-100 billion barrels, and natural gas reserves of about 30,000-5 trillion cubic meters. The Antarctica's Ross Sea, Weddell Sea and Belin's Gaujin Sea, and the Antarctic Shelf are the main sources of oil fields and natural gas.

In the Antarctic region, there are still a lot of resources to be identified, and the results of resource exploration in various countries have not been fully disclosed. Therefore, further efforts by Chinese scientists are needed.

Due to the high altitude, the thin air, and the reflection of solar radiation on the ice and snow surface, the Antarctic continent has become the coldest region in the world. Its average temperature is 20 ° C lower than that of the Arctic. The average annual temperature of Antarctica is -25 ° C. The annual average temperature in the coastal areas of Antarctica is about minus 17 to minus 20 ° C; the annual average temperature in inland areas is minus 40 to minus 50 ° C; the Antarctic Plateau is the coldest, with an annual average temperature as low as -53 ° C. The lowest temperature observed on the earth was -93.2 ° C, which was recorded in the United States in August 2010. At such a low temperature, ordinary steel will become brittle like glass; if a glass of water is poured into the air, it will fall Turned out to be an ice crystal. The coldness of Antarctica is firstly related to its high latitude geographic location. Due to the high latitude geographic location, there is no sunlight during the long polar night of the year. At the same time, it is related to the angle of incidence of solar rays. The higher the latitude, the smaller the angle of incidence of sunlight, and the less the solar thermal energy absorbed per unit area. Antarctica is located in the highest latitudes on the earth. The angle of incidence of the sun is the smallest. The sun can only obliquely reach the surface, and the oblique sunlight has the lowest heat. In addition, 95% of the Antarctic land surface is covered by white ice and snow. The reflectivity of snow and ice to sunlight is 80% to 84%, and less than 20% of it reaches the ground, and most of this poor heat is reflected back to space. . Antarctica's high altitude and relatively thin air make it difficult to store heat, so Antarctica is extremely cold.

Antarctica is not only the coldest place in the world, but also the region with the strongest wind in the world. There is an average of 300 days of strong winds above 8 levels there, with an average annual wind speed of 19.4 m / s. 1972 Australia

The largest desert in the world: the icy Antarctic continent-strictly speaking, it is the largest desert in the world. (Guinness)

The coldest temperature on earth: The lowest temperature can drop to minus 89.2 degrees Celsius (minus 128.6 degrees Fahrenheit)-the coldest temperature on the planet, with wind speeds of more than 270 kilometers (68 miles) per hour. (Guinness) ^[7]